"Rest, young Kouri."
"Kuuu...."
"Kuuu...."
While the world was rife with alarm as the Portal Stones came to life, Tenrof found himself more concerned with the tree spirit recovering in his hand. Barely as big, but it glowed with a light that pulsed in the dark woods around them. A youngling spirit, only recently born by the world's times. And in the brief life it had existed, it endured turmoil and strife, of conflict among entities that had been worshiped as gods in mythic times. Born from a single spirit feather born of the Mother Tree, Kouri had been one of Tenrof's many missions to ensure the continuation of the Tree's lineage unto the current ages and beyond. But in a reckless intervention he had sought to end the source of the conflicts raging around the tree spirit. With powers that defied not just the Laws of Magic, but that of the material reality itself he had risen to battle, to cut the head of the snake, end the threats.
The Herald of Magic dictated otherwise.
His very self was banished from the material world, his essence scattered so far and wide, Arethil would have died out long before he assembled enough together to form a conscious. But he was not so helpless that a mere banishment would halt his involvement entirely. At first, with the help of a cat from a void such as he, he aimed to use the remaining lifeforce of a Titan Serpent, one driven insane by such hate and rage at Tenrof it would have served as a sufficient catalyst to bring him back into the fold. The serpentine Great One had been personally wronged by the entity in an age far gone, and a unique aspect of these species was their ability to assimilate the essence of a hated enemy, living or dead. In the serpent's case, it had been irrevocably twisted by what it had taken in, as Tenrof was not of this reality. It was this essence that would catalyze the entity's return. Or so he had hoped.
Alas, it went awry. But it was not without benefit. He had at last gained a foothold in the material realm once more. But the moving force behind his return had yet to recover its strength, resting in the palm of his hand. He had regained a corporeal form, but it came with all its previous disadvantages. He had nearly dissipated from the overflow of information that pierced his mind the moment he stepped onto solid ground.
So he lay seated on the forest floor, processing the World around him. Kouri would recover - at this stage, with the abilities gifted by the remnants of the tree that once served as the Serpent's prison, Kouri would recover shortly. It was sleeping now, as he managed the flow of information to a level that allowed balance of form and utilization of his skills. Free hand extended, Tenrof's lone left eye narrowed in concentration.
A brief assessment of his current state.
'Unable to access Aegis, restricts usage of powers and associated skills. Knowledge of ██████████ intact. Will compensate as sufficient combat stratagem until full faculty recovery.'
He could not fight with his powers and the skills derived. What he could do was replicate the abilities of the Rith Ice Mage that carried Tenrof's tome, but on a much smaller scale with his own powers.
It was not the outcome he had desired, but such was the way of things. He had been robust and reckless to achieve inferior results. But what was done, was done. Enough, he would continue to focus on the spirit's recovery.
A small blessing that they were in a forest. It would have been best if it were morning, as the the light of the Sun and the energies of nature together ensured optimal growth, but this was good enough. The entity checked his side, where his amulet lay glowing, having resized itself to match him. When the need would arise, Kouri would bear it as a small pack bound to his back, to search for a way to fully incarnate Tenrof into the physical realm once more.
Setting thoughts of return aside, the entity's gaze wandered over the dark forest. Only shadows of the trees greeted him back, alongside the night canvas above him, twinkling with starts uncountable and numerous. They did little to illuminate the dark woods below, obscured by the thick foliage of the trees, but from where Tenrof sat, at the trunk of a particularly proud and tall oak, there was an opening where the starlight pierced through, coincidentally illuminating the fragile spirit in his hand moreso.
Woe and death to any who dared take the spirit from Tenrof.
CRACK!
But fate was not always so kind, and would surely attract more. If not from the glimmer of Kouri's light as it rested and recovered in Tenrof's care, then the sudden crack that echoed across the dark woods, as the shadow killed a sneaking hunter from behind his tree trunk, violently thrown into another, snapping the man's spine from the force of the impact.
All without moving an inch.
Even a tiger without its fangs could yet fight back.
Oscar Viotto
